Shreveport to install new water meter reading system for 2019

Two internal audits identified several problems with the City of Shreveport's water meter readings and service charges, including undercharges that cost the city more than $102,000 of lost revenue.
(Lex Talamo/The Times)

A majority of meter reading inaccuracies were caused by "miskeys" and "misreads" according to the audit.(Photo: Internal Audit Office report graphic)

The City of Shreveport now plans to install a new water meter reading system starting in in 2019, to correct an earlier $7 million investment in automated meters that it is not using.

Barbara Featherston, director of the city's water and sewerage department, said the city's plan is to solicit proposals this year to determine "if a completely new system" would be more feasible than adding meters to the city's existing stock.

The new meters would be phased in billing cycle by billing cycle, Featherston added, for both residential and commercial properties.

This newest city venture stems from recommendations from the Shreveport Internal Audit Office in an October 2017 audit, which said the city should analyze the "cost-effectiveness" of replacing or repairing non-functioning water meters.

The audit report from the city internal audit office found that the city's 3,500 automatic meter readers — which use transmitting towers to automatically transmit customers' monthly use data to the city's central billing database — were not being used.

In its response to the findings, city officials said its short-term plan was to use the current system on as many meters as possible without spending lots of money while, long term, expanding automatic meter reading capabilities city wide.

The audits found that the city's automatic meter reading capabilities were not functioning properly.(Photo: Internal Audit Office report graphic)

The process

Featherston said the funds for more automated meters were not appropriated in the 2018 budget. Nor does the city plan to purchase automated readers this year, she added.

The city's next step, per the audit recommendations, is to develop a request for proposals for a new system this year and to start the project in 2019, Featherston said.

"Our intention is to solicit proposals for either a new system or to add to our existing system, depending upon the outcome of the evaluation of the existing system," Featherston said.

The city's 81,000 meters are currently read manually by staff and then entered into the meter reading.(Photo: Internal Audit Office report graphic)

Currently, city staff are working to track automated meters that are reporting to the system and to verify those readings with manual reads, Featherston said. Once she's assured the automatic reads are accurate, she said, the manual reads will stop.

Featherston said staff also will repair automated meters so they communicate with the system.

"As the audit indicates, we are attempting to utilize as much of the existing system without making a large financial commitment," she said. "Per our timeline in the audit, we expect to complete the task in 2018."

There is no contractor yet, Featherston added.

Automatic meters

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Two audits from the Internal Audit Office found problems with the City of Shreveport's water meter readings.(Photo: Lex Talamo/The Times)

The city contracted with Triton Water Technologies in 2010, at a cost of more than $7 million, to install the automatic meter readers.

The upgrade aimed, in part, to increase revenue by reducing errors from monthly use entries manually keyed into handheld "Trimble" readers by city staff.

Triton installed 3,034 automatic meters in 2010. Fifty-five of those then were removed due to "house vacancy" or "unauthorized use" classifications by city staff, according to the October 2017 audit.

The audit found, however, that as of 2017, the automatic readers were not functioning and that city staff were instead reading each of the city's total 81,000 water meters by hand.

The City of Shreveport responded in the audit report that it is committed to ensuring customers are billed the correct amounts.(Photo: Internal Audit Office report graphic)

The disuse of the automatic readers could result in ongoing "waste of city assets" due to "continuing, significant operating inefficiencies," the audit noted.

But a city estimate of the needed investment for automatic meters is $20 million, according to a line item in the Department of Water and Sewerage's "Unfunded Needs" list in the 2018 budget.

The city still plans to move forward, however, to install 3,000 new automated readers by 2019, according to the department's statement in the budget, "to ensure consistent, accurate billing of water and provide enhanced services for real-time, self-monitoring of customer accounts."